Despite midterm losses, Pa. Republicans appear unlikely to abandon combative agenda
HARRISBURG — Republicans inside and outside Pennsylvania government say that despite a disastrous midterm election, they don’t see signs that the party is shifting its electoral or governing strategies away from contentious social issues like restricting abortion. Some party insiders say that trend is a bad sign for GOP prospects....
Moving species emerges as last resort as climate warms
In a desperate effort to save a seabird species in Hawaii from rising ocean waters, scientists are moving chicks to a new island hundreds of miles away. Moving species to save them — once considered taboo — is quickly gaining traction as climate change upends habitats. Similar relocations are being...
Making pig livers humanlike in quest to ease organ shortage
EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. — The ghostly form floating in a large jar had been the robust reddish-brown of a healthy organ just hours before. Now it’s semitranslucent, white tubes like branches on a tree showing through. This is a pig liver that’s gradually being transformed to look and act like...
Greta Thunberg carried away by police at German mine protest
BERLIN — Police in western Germany carried Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg and other protesters away Tuesday from the edge of an open coal pit mine where they demonstrated against the ongoing destruction of a village to make way for the mine’s expansion, German news agency dpa reported. Thunberg, 20,...
Wisconsin judge dismisses complaint against GOP fake elector
MADISON, Wis. — A Wisconsin judge on Tuesday dismissed an open records complaint against a Republican member of the Wisconsin Elections Commission who served as a fake elector for former President Donald Trump. Allegations that the elections commission violated the state open records law by wrongly withholding documents will go...
China records 1st population fall in decades as births dropVideo
BEIJING — For the first time in decades, China has fewer people than it did at the start of last year, according to official figures released Tuesday. The world’s most populous country has worried for years about an aging citizenry’s effect on its economy and society, but its population was...
Russian strike toll: 45 dead civilians, including 6 children
KYIV, Ukraine — The death toll from the Ukraine war’s deadliest attack on civilians at one location since last spring reached 45 at an apartment building a Russian missile blasted in the southeastern city of Dnipro, officials said Tuesday. Those killed in the Saturday afternoon strike included six children, with...
Police: 8 people shot, 1 critical at Florida MLK Day eventVideo
FORT PIERCE, Fla. — Police in Florida said eight people were shot during an Martin Luther King Jr. Day event, with one of the victims listed in critical condition. The St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office confirmed all the victims in the Monday shooting in Fort Pierce were adults, WPBF-TV reported....
Elon Musk drama shifts from Twitter to tweets about Tesla
SAN FRANCISCO — While still grappling with the fallout from a company he did take private, beleaguered billionaire Elon Musk is now facing a trial over a company he didn’t. Long before Musk purchased Twitter for $44 billion in October, he had set his sights on Tesla, the electric automaker...
Shapiro takes oath of office to become 48th Pa. governor
HARRISBURG — Democrat Josh Shapiro took the oath of office Tuesday to become the 48th governor of Pennsylvania, placing his hand on a stack of three Jewish Bibles at Tuesday’s inaugural ceremony outside the state Capitol to cap his blowout win in November’s election. Shapiro, 49, takes over in the...
China announces first population decline in recent years
BEIJING — China has announced its first overall population decline in recent years amid an aging society and plunging birthrate. The National Bureau of Statistics reported the country had 850,000 fewer people at the end of 2022 than over the previous year. It counts only the population of mainland China...
Ex-GOP candidate arrested in shootings at New Mexico lawmakers’ homes
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A failed Republican candidate who authorities said was angry over his defeat and made baseless claims the election last November was “rigged” against him was arrested in connection with a series of drive-by shootings targeting the homes of Democratic lawmakers in New Mexico’s largest city. Solomon Pena,...
Pa. lawmakers once again propose moving up presidential primary
PHILADELPHIA — Pennsylvania is a hugely important political battleground, but it hasn’t traditionally mattered much in presidential primaries. That’s because the state votes so late. It holds its presidential primary on the fourth Tuesday in April, long after many states have voted. Despite being one of the biggest swing states...
Body of man missing since Hurriane Ian found on sunken boat
FORT MYERS, Fla. — The remains of a man who was reported missing after Hurricane Ian hit Florida’s Gulf Coast last year have been recovered from a sunken sailboat, sheriff’s officials said. The Lee County Sheriff’s Office said Sunday that the remains were identified as James “Denny” Hurst, 72, who...
Van Gogh painting with mysterious past is immune from seizure, Detroit Institute of Arts claims
DETROIT — The Detroit Institute of Arts cannot be forced to relinquish control of a multimillion-dollar painting by Vincent van Gogh at the center of a federal lawsuit because the artwork is protected by a federal law granting immunity to foreign artwork on display in the United States, the museum’s...
Wisconsin voting groups criticize GOP minority turnout email
MADISON, Wis. — Black and Hispanic voters in Wisconsin’s largest city say a Republican election commissioner publicly applauding GOP strategies he credits with depressing minority turnout are a public admission of a conservative strategy in place for years. “He’s proudly telling Hispanic and Latino voters, ‘I’m your enemy, and I’m...
Man, 19, shot in Luzerne County movie theater dies; suspect sought
HAZLETON — Authorities say a man shot in a movie theater in eastern Pennsylvania over the weekend has died of his injuries and a suspect is being sought. State police in Luzerne County said the victim was struck by gunfire in the arcade/lobby of the Regal Cinema next to the...
6 people, including teen mother and baby, killed in California; drug cartel suspectedVideo
LOS ANGELES — Six people, including a 6-month old baby, her teenage mother and an elderly woman, were killed Monday in a Tulare County farming community in what the sheriff said was likely a targeted attack by a drug cartel. The massacre occurred around 3:30 a.m. in and around three...
On King’s holiday, daughter calls for bold action over words
ATLANTA — America has honored Martin Luther King Jr. with a federal holiday for nearly four decades yet still hasn’t fully embraced and acted on the lessons from the slain civil rights leader, his youngest daughter said Monday. The Rev. Bernice King, who leads The King Center in Atlanta, said...
More rain, snow in California from 9th in series of storms
LOS ANGELES — The ninth atmospheric river in a three-week series of major winter storms was churning through California on Monday, leaving mountain driving dangerous and the flooding risk high near swollen rivers even as the sun came out in some areas. Heavy snow fell across the Sierra Nevada and...
Flight data, voice recorders retrieved from Nepal crash site
POKHARA, Nepal — Search teams retrieved the flight data and cockpit voice recorders Monday of a passenger plane that plummeted into a gorge on approach to a new airport in the foothills of the Himalayas, officials said, as investigators looked for the cause of Nepal’s deadliest plane crash in 30...
Jill Biden’s skin cancer could fuel advocacy in cancer fight
WASHINGTON — Jill Biden’ s advocacy for curing cancer didn’t start with her son’s death in 2015 from brain cancer. It began decades earlier, long before she came into the national spotlight, and could now be further energized by her own brush with a common form of skin cancer. The...
Secrecy has dominated Shapiro’s transition to Pa. governor and may be a sign of what’s to come
Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with PennLive/The Patriot-News, TribLIVE/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and WITF Public Media. Sign up for our free newsletters. HARRISBURG — For nearly two months, a team of advisers has been working to ensure Democratic Gov.-elect Josh Shapiro has a...
Explainer: Tackling threat of mudslides in soaked CaliforniaVideo
SAN DIEGO — Relentless storms from a series of atmospheric rivers have saturated the steep mountains and bald hillsides scarred from wildfires along much of California’s long coastline, causing hundreds of landslides this month. So far the debris has mostly blocked roads and highways and has not harmed communities as...
No. 1 wanted Mafia boss held in Italy after 30 years on the run
ROME — Italy’s No. 1 fugitive, Matteo Messina Denaro, a convicted Mafia boss who ordered some of the nation’s most heinous killings, was arrested Monday at a private clinic in Sicily after three decades on the run, Italian paramilitary police said. Messina Denaro was captured at the Palermo clinic where...
